


Love is Like a Bonemerang

by dragonlandsandyaoihands



Series: Mad Blood Stirring [14]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam and Shiro the pokemon trainers, Allura the ponyta, Allura the rapidash, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Hunk the lapras, Keith the cubone, Lance the marill, M/M, Pidge the combusken, Pokemon AU, then she evolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 14:51:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18662599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonlandsandyaoihands/pseuds/dragonlandsandyaoihands
Summary: Lance is working hard with his beloved trainer Adam. He wants everyone to know that he's going to be the best marill ever. Unfortunately, Shiro's new cubone, Keith, needs some convincing. Lance is determined to win their rivalry. Let the best pokemon win!





	Love is Like a Bonemerang

**Author's Note:**

> I've given up on my usual Shakespeare naming convention for this one, as well as the penchant for porn. Canonically, no one has ever seen pokemon reproduce so no pokemon will be having sex! Please enjoy this (mostly) light-hearted fluffy fic!

The first time Lance met Keith was during battle. Shiro had first spotted the cubone running at their group, bone club raised menacingly. He’d shouted, but Adam had been able to throw a ball first, sending out Lance to defend the group.

“Marill!” Lance yelled, throwing his chest out. He might have looked like a cute blue creature, but he was fierce. Especially when it came to protecting his trainer.

The cubone ignored his defensive posturing and rushed at him, hitting him hard with the club. He was definitely a higher level, but Lance had the type advantage and he knew it. A couple of good bubble beams and the other pokémon could hardly stand. The opponent had managed to sneak in some good blows though, (not that Lance would admit it), and Lance was breathing hard too. He waited for Adam to give the order to finish him off, but instead, Adam threw a ball. It took a few tries, but in the end, Adam captured the cubone, only to trade him away to his best friend and traveling companion, Shiro. 

Lance was a combination of thrilled and wary. Thrilled because it meant that he was no longer the newest pokémon on either team so he wouldn’t have to endure the endless teasing, but understandably worried about the cubone’s inclusion. After all, the other pokémon hadn’t just been defending some territory, he’d come out of nowhere and rushed them, like an animal. Lance’s tail bobbed in discomfort remembering the incident. He’d waited until that evening when Shiro and Adam released both of their teams for dinner. They’d retreated to their tent, assigning Allura the job of keeping tabs on their fire. She always liked to curl up on it, letting the flames meld with the ones running along her back. She boasted that, as a ponyta, sleeping on fire every night helped her run faster, but no one really believed it. Lance had watched as the newest member, Keith, had silently sat apart from everyone else after Shiro had introduced him. He’d barely eaten any of their dinner and had strayed from the fire once the humans weren’t looking. Lance saw him start to leave and barreled after him.

“Hey! What are you doing? You can’t leave!”

“Be quiet! Why are you so loud?”

“Because you’re trying to _sneak_ away!”

“I’m not sneaking away! I just want to be alone right now! Who even are you?”

“Uh, I’m Lance. You know, the marill? Part of Adam’s team? You just got introduced like, an hour ago.”

“Oh, right. Sure.”

“No, not sure! I can’t believe you didn’t recognize me! I was the one you fought when Adam captured you.”

“Okay. But, Shiro’s my trainer.”

“Yeah, Adam traded you to Shiro because Shiro had just caught a feebas, Shay, a few weeks ago and Shiro doesn’t really like the water so much. I always thought it was because he was scared or didn’t know how to swim, but I overheard him saying something about his arm not doing well in water, whatever that means. Adam mostly focuses on water and ice pokémon anyway, so it was perfect.”

Keith blinked dumbly at the sudden onslaught of information. Before he got a chance to process it, or respond, Lance spoke again.

“If you’re not trying to run away, why didn’t you eat dinner?”

Keith shook his whole body in dismay when he remembered the blocks they’d been given.

“It tasted bad. They were either really sweet or gross and sour.”

“Hey! I’ll have you know that sour is the best flavor!”

Keith took a step back from the suddenly angry pokémon. He felt himself getting defensive again.

“No, it isn’t! Sour food is terrible! Spicy food is the best flavor!”

“Is not!”

“Is too-no, wait! It doesn’t matter. Just leave me alone, okay?”

“Oh no, you don’t get to walk away after that. Even if I wasn’t _totally offended_ by your rude comments on sour food, it doesn’t change the fact that you’ve definitely gone too far away from the campsite. It’s dangerous around here! There could be trainers lurking around, or that group of weirdos with R on their shirts, or even other wild pokémon! You’re all healed up, but you’re only a level ten! This area has level eighteen noctowls and haunters on the prowl!”

The cubone glanced around the clearing with some uncertainty, only just then realizing that he’d never been outside the Rock Tunnel before and that he ought to treat his unfamiliar surroundings with caution. Reconsidering his wandering off was one thing, though, but Lance seemed to have a lot of trust in both the trainers and their companions that Keith didn’t share. He’d only just met all of them, after all. Not to mention the fact that the trainers were only children themselves, hardly leveled very high at all. He’d mostly zoned out while they’d talked before, but he’d heard them mention something about needing to level up more in order to eventually challenge someone named Erika. And he wasn’t about to let some uppity marill, scarcely a level higher than him dictate his life. Keith turned around and started walking away, determined to end the confrontation. 

Lance gasped in outrage. Without thinking about it, he lashed out with a cry. His tail whizzed towards Keith and promptly wound around him, binding him to a nearby tree. Keith growled in frustration. 

“If you don’t calm down, I’ll bubble you again! Until you faint and retract into your pokéball! Then you can just wait there, unconscious, until we reach the next town! And I bet it won’t be for a long time ‘cause we just left that spooky place with all the ghosts!”

“Why won’t you just leave me alone?”

Keith would never admit that Lance’s intimidation tactics were starting to work a little bit. All the talk about ghosts and haunters in the area left him very unsettled. It was one thing spending time with his mother, after she had died, because he knew that she loved him and protected him, but he didn’t like the idea of strange spirits. Anything that he couldn’t throw his bone at seemed pretty frightening and he’d never seen a haunter or a noctowl. They couldn’t be worse than being threatened by a trumped up blue bubbly thing though and he decided to take his chances. Just as he began to struggle to raise his bone, Lance’s tail unwound from his body and he fell to the ground with an undignified thump.

“I’m not going to let you get in to trouble. I’m doing it for Adam. You can be by yourself and I’ll be quiet, but you have to stay within eyesight of me. Just in case you start being shifty. I’ll keep watch until you’re trustworthy.”

Keith grumbled, but conceded. There was no point in arguing any further; it would only devolve into a battle. He wasn’t worried about his chances (much), but he was worried that the other pokémon might be alerted and become involved. And bring the humans. That was the last thing he needed that night. He walked deeper into the tree line, trying to salvage what dignity he had left. Lance followed him, surprising Keith with his commitment to silence. He’d expected the marill to keep chattering on, the way he did all throughout the icky dinner. He’d chatted up every single member of both teams, apparently able to carry on three separate conversations at once. That amount of social interaction made Keith’s head spin. He’d met other pokémon in the Rock Tunnel; he and his mother had been by no means anti-social. But there was a big difference between encountering the occasional geodude, or swatting away a pesky zubat, and whatever camaraderie being on a team meant. 

Keith ended up behind a tree, rubbing the skull he wore and whimpering, remembering his mother and their life together. Even though it had been awhile, he’d been stuck. He might have gone on grieving her forever in the corner of that cave if the intruders hadn’t scared him so badly. He’d still been angry and he’d lashed out, not wanting to move on, but unable to remain on his own. Who knows what could have happened if he’d stayed quiet and hidden, outside the range of their lights? Would it have been better if he did? At least he wouldn’t have had to put up with stupid marill sticking their noses into his business. He tried to ignore Lance’s presence and curled in on himself, holding on to his memories. 

Lance had been proud of himself for coming up with the idea of keeping watch; thinking how grateful both Shiro and Adam would be if they knew how responsible he’d become. He kept his mouth shut out of respect, but when Keith finally settled down into an uneasy sleep, crying out for his mom, he started to rethink the idea that Keith was some kind of threat that needed to be watched. He wrestled with the notion of trying to comfort the lonely cubone, but eventually decided that neither pokémon would find any real solace in such an effort. He managed to arrange some soft grass under another nearby tree, sitting up against it to keep an eye on Keith. Neither of them slept well that night, or for many to come. 

The next few days were ones of hard work, practicing their skills along Route 7 and 8. Lance and Keith were by far the lowest leveled pokémon of Adam and Shiro’s respective teams, so they were always the lead pokémon in battle, often switched out for another to gain some experience. Keith took the opportunities very seriously, constantly trying to convince Shiro that he could fight his own battles, despite his low level. Adam noticed how Lance followed Keith around more than the others and joked that the two were rivals. Keith didn’t pay any attention to the comment, but Lance took it to heart, determined to impress Keith and get through his stubbornly hardened exterior. He was very curious about Keith’s past and initially excited to have another pokémon around his level to partner with and befriend. Hunk was great and all, an amazing lapras to be sure, but he was already level 26 and leagues beyond Lance in all the ways that mattered. Some days, Lance wasn’t sure if Hunk even considered him a friend or if he merely tolerated Lance for Adam’s sake. He’d tried hard to strike up a good friendship with Allura, Shiro’s ponyta, but she usually brushed off his silly lines, saying that they were opposites and not naturally inclined towards each other. Lance tried not to take it personally. 

The first time he was able to take down a level 17 vulpix all by himself, Lance strutted around, his chest puffed out. The other pokémon were very generous with their praise, but when Keith didn’t have anything to say that night, even after Lance had regaled him with the fabulous tale of his victory, Lance couldn’t help but deflate a bit. He went around the other side of the fire, pouting and glaring at the oblivious Keith across the way. Hunk leaned down to nuzzle him gently, but it was hard to be reassured. Lance narrowed his eyes at the stupid cubone, more determined than ever to be better than him. It was that anger that managed to hinder their next battle.

For some reason, Adam and Shiro had gotten it into their heads that they wanted to improve their doubles technique, challenging trainers to dual battles where Adam and Shiro each got to send out a pokémon for the fight. The first few fights made use of their higher leveled pokémon, more for the humans’ benefit. However, once they’d gotten the hang of it, they agreed that Lance and Keith could use the opportunity to improve and gain more experience. Unbeknownst to the pokémon themselves, Adam and Shiro arranged a battle against two little girls. When Keith came out of his ball, rearing to go, he did a double take when Adam also stepped up and let Lance come out as well. Keith stared at the marill beside him in complete confusion. Lance seemed no less bewildered at the situation.

“Why are you out? This is _my_ fight!”

“I don’t know! I didn’t ask to come out! Adam called for me. Why don’t you yell at him?”

Unable to grasp the sarcasm in Lance’s voice during such a tense moment, Keith did exactly that. He turned around and started in on Adam and Shiro, demanding to know what they were thinking. Of course, to the bemused humans, shrill calls of “Cubone! Cu-cu bone?” meant nothing, but the sentiment was clear. Shiro held up a hand in apology to the trainers opposite them and squatted down to speak to the agitated pokémon.

“Hey now, calm down. You and Lance are going to work together for this fight. Okay? I know you both enjoy the scuffles against each other, but if you want to get stronger, you also need to be able to battle in two v two battles and Lance is the closest to you in level. This is going to be a big challenge; these girls’ pokémon are in their twenties, but I have faith in you guys. I know you can be successful. Agreed?”

Adam nodded, giving Lance a significant look. Lance may have only been level 12, but he’d been with Adam for a long time. He trusted him completely and would do anything for him. If teaming up with Keith would make Adam happy, well, Lance was willing to set aside his feelings of animosity and work together. He hoped that Keith would do the same. Keith squared his shoulders and nodded, first at Shiro, then at Lance, before turning to face the little girls, his face full of determination. 

“I’m ready.”

Lance copied his stance, standing close to him and the girls twirled their hair, complaining about dumb boys who couldn’t handle their dumb pokémon. Keith snarled in outrage, about to charge forward. Lance gripped him on the skull and gently pulled him backwards. 

“Hold on, hothead! They haven’t sent out their pokémon yet! You can’t go around attacking humans, even if they deserve it.”

Keith’s eyes were murderous, but he obeyed and stayed put. The girls sent out a level 22 clefairy and a level 22 jigglypuff. Lance sucked in a breath, nervous, but not wanting to alarm Keith. Or show any signs of hesitation in front of their trainers. It would be a difficult battle to win, no doubt about it. He and Adam had a pretty good routine down. He started with a defense curl and followed up with a rollout. That way, he’d do an increasing amount of damage each turn and take less damage for each hit in between. Plus, for some reason, he’d always found his rollout move to be more effective after he’d curled in on himself. That was the best strategy and he widened his stance in preparation for the orders. In the mean time, Keith held his bone club at the ready. Lance shifted to the left somewhat, unsteady in the wake of trying to accommodate an ally. He turned out to be the fastest so he went first, trying not to seem wrong-footed. 

“Lance! Use helping hand!”

He nearly tripped over himself trying not to start a defense curl. What? Why would Adam call that one? It was a new move; he’d only just learned it. Hadn’t even had the chance to practice at all, since it called for a two on two battle. Hurriedly, Lance darted over to Keith and bounced twice beside him, giving a hesitant, but loud rallying cry. Keith felt empowered, (albeit confused), by Lance’s move and was more than ready to respond to Shiro’s call for him to use bone club. Keith rushed forward and clobbered the clefairy as hard as he could. It recoiled from the blow, letting out a small wail of pain. Then it was the clefairy’s turn and it slapped Keith in the face as retaliation, once, twice, then three times. Keith stumbled back, slightly dazed from the solid smacks. The jiggypuff followed up with an attack Keith had never encountered before.  Its eyes suddenly glowed and he was trapped in their gaze. He suddenly felt sure that he wouldn’t be able to use his bone club for a few turns which frustrated him to no end.

The next round, Adam ordered Lance to do a defense curl and Lance finally relaxed, comfortable with the routine. He’d have to aim carefully to ensure that his rollout didn’t accidentally hit Keith as the turns went by and his rolling became harder and harder to control. Shiro asked Keith to tail whip the clefairy he’d attacked previously, but the clefairy managed to evade him. He shook himself in anger at the stealthy pink monstrosity. The clefairy further heightened its evading abilities by using minimize and Keith shifted on his feet, eager to try again when his turn came around. The jigglypuff dashed in to pound Lance, but he seemed to shake off the blow. Keith didn’t miss how he stumbled a bit when he backed up though. Then he jumped into the air, before Adam even had a chance to yell out his next move. Keith watched as Lance began to spin very fast and the next thing he knew, Lance had bowled himself like a ball and went rushing at the jigglypuff. The second time around, Keith’s tail whip was successful and he unbalanced the clefairy. It slapped him again, once more jolting his head painfully within the skull he wore. He couldn’t stop the grunt of pain. The jigglypuff did its own defense curl and Keith tensed, waiting to see if it would perform the same combo as Lance. 

Lance rolled at the jigglypuff again, dealing even more damage the second time. The focused expression on the marill’s face inspired Keith to shake off whatever the jigglypuff had done and allow him to use his bone club once more on the clefairy, bringing it down to critical. He allowed himself a small, smug smile. He’d polish off the clefairy the next turn and Lance seemed to be doing well beside him. Just as the impending feeling of accomplishment began to swell in his chest, the clefairy broke out a special weapon. It began to _sing._ A soft and sweet lullaby drifted lazily through the air. Keith took a couple of steps back and covered his ear holes, humming to himself to combat the soothing song. He beat back the drowsiness, swinging his club in the air a few times. The clefairy finally stopped and Keith panted, awake but still tired. A sudden, adorably tiny snore echoed next to him. Keith did a double-take. No! Lance was asleep? That stupid lazy marill! How could he have let himself fall asleep at such a crucial moment on the battlefield? Keith knew that it wasn’t exactly Lance’s fault, but he needed him to be awake and fighting! Fine. He huffed and resettled his stance. If he had to do it alone, then he would. 

 The jigglypuff rolled itself just as Lance had and Keith braced himself for impact. Only, it never came. Instead, it rolled out at Lance, defenseless and motionless where he lay. The attack was devastating; landing Lance in critical hit points. Adam used a potion on Lance’s turn to bring him back from the brink, but Lance didn’t wake up. Keith didn’t think he could take too many more hits. He charged forward with a war cry, knocking the clefairy unconscious. The jigglypuff rolled out at Keith on its turn, assuming that Lance was nearly finished anyway. Keith fell back, injured badly and nearing critical himself. He wheezed, trying to get the air back in that had been knocked out of his lungs. He dropped to one knee, propping himself up on his club. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Shiro reaching around to retrieve Keith’s pokéball. No! They were going to be withdrawn from battle?

In the nick of time, a large spritz of water came from the corner of Keith’s vision and caught the jigglypuff in the side. A critical hit! Keith whipped his head around, black spots blinking in his vision to see Lance sitting up, hazily looking around, with his tail extended. He grinned when he caught Keith’s eye. Keith stumbled over to him and knelt down, clasping their hands together and heaving Lance up into a sitting position. Lance winked and jauntily tilted his head. Then he winced at the action.

“Guess we do make a pretty good team, huh?”

Keith smiled softly, though no one could see it. He nodded slowly to make sure Lance got the message, but his head throbbed too much to tolerate any more conversation. Lance’s eyes fell closed again and he fell forward, into Keith’s tiny arms. He wailed in panic. 

“Cubone!”

Adam and Shiro dashed over to comfort the worried cubone, on the verge of tears, and retract Lance into his pokéball. Shiro assured him that they’d head back into town to a pokécenter immediately and that Lance would be fine. In fact, Shiro even praised him for gaining two levels during the fight. Later, when Lance was recovered, Keith would smugly rub it in his face since Lance had only gained a single level, making them both level thirteen. Lance couldn’t lord it over him anymore! Not to mention the fact that Keith learned a new move: head-butt. He was confident that it would be a real winner in the future. At the time, though, Keith was highly distressed and insisted on staying out of his ball to ensure Lance’s safety. He liked Shiro just fine and Adam seemed pretty nice according to Lance, but he didn’t trust them yet. He made grabbing motions at Adam, but both boys were distracted with accepting their winning money and talking with the enemy trainers. Keith huffed in dissatisfaction and hopped up, swiping Lance’s pokéball from Adam’s belt.

“Hey! What the? Keith? What are you doing with Lance’s pokéball?”

“Cu! Cubone! Bone! Cu-cu!”

“I…have no idea why I bothered asking.”

Shiro crouched down, gently trying to wrestle the ball back from Keith. The pokémon wasn’t having any of it though. He clutched the ball close to his chest, cowering away from Shiro and yelling. Finally, Shiro sighed and stood up again. He scratched his head in dismay and turned back to Adam.

“I think he just wants to make sure that Lance is top priority. I mean, he didn’t even _faint,_ just fell over a bit. I didn’t realize that they were so attached to each other, honestly. But, look, we’re going to head back to Lavender Town anyway, because everyone could use a top off and we’ll need to restock, but Keith, I think you’re overreacting a bit.”

Keith glared at his trainer so viciously that Shiro winced back a bit. He shrugged helplessly and motioned for them to be off. Keith stuck close to them, careful to avoid any tall grass or suspicious areas. He’d never held a pokéball before and didn’t know what might accidentally activate it and bring Lance out at the bare minimum of health. And he certainly wasn’t equipped to battle while keeping hold of it. He dodged around the ankles of Shiro and Adam, anxious to arrive in the Lavender Town they’d discussed. Luckily, it wasn’t a long trip back, (although Adam seemed especially displeased to find that, contrary to his memory, there wasn’t a pokémart in the entire place). Keith didn’t care about a mart and headed straight into the center. He marched up to the nearest Nurse Joy, demanding that she care for Lance. She patted him on the head and cooed about how big and tough he was. Keith fumed at the condescension clear in her voice and raised his bone in fury. A chansey ran over, waving its arms around in alarm.

“Please don’t hurt her! She doesn’t mean to insult you, I promise. She didn’t see the ball properly and humans can’t understand us. If you give it to me, I’ll put it in the curing machine.”

Keith eyed her suspiciously, but every chansey he’d ever met had been kind. He handed the ball over warily and climbed up on a counter to watch the chansey insert it into the machine. It waved again at Nurse Joy who exclaimed and immediately came over to push some buttons and make the machine activate. Keith crossed his arms and sat down to wait, eyes fixed where the ball had disappeared. Shiro and Adam found him soon afterwards, apologized profusely to Nurse Joy who seemed extremely confused, and then glared down at Keith. Shiro delivered some stern speech about Keith running off with another member of the team and why it was dangerous and something could have happened, but Keith tuned him out. When Shiro eventually realized that his cubone didn’t hear a word he’d said, he sighed and stopped waggling his finger. Privately, Keith wondered why humans did that when it always took any seriousness out of the situation since they looked so dumb. But he didn’t have time to worry about it because the machine sang a song and dinged, the red light changing to green. It opened up, a small hiss of steam escaping the pod. Keith lunged forward for the ball, ducking under Shiro’s hands.

“Keith!”

Unsure how to trigger it, Keith threw the ball on the ground as hard as he could. Then he leapt down from the counter and slammed it with his bone club. Whether from the initial contact or the subsequent banging, the ball opened, (only slightly worse for wear), and Lance popped out, stretching his tail.

“Hey! What happened? What’s going on? Where am I?”

“We won the battle! Don’t you remember? You said we made a good team!”

“I _said_ that? Are you sure? As I remember it, I did way more than you.”

What? He couldn’t believe this! The nerve of this marill!

“I clubbed the clefairy out cold!”

“Yeah, but I bubbled that jigglypuff after emerging from a sleep!”

“We had a bonding moment! I cradled you in my arms!”

Keith threw said arms up and his voice broke near the end. He wasn’t proud of that. 

“Nope, don’t remember. Didn’t happen.”

“Are you _kidding me?_ ”

Keith lost any manner of control and charged, testing out his new head-butt move. It wasn’t a one-hit k.o. but Lance fell back, utterly unprepared for the assault, and began crying in pain. Nurse Joy tutted loudly, protesting against any fighting in a hospital, and the next thing Keith knew, it was dinner time and the party was in some woods, somewhere along Route 7. Dammit! He’d been retracted to his pokéball before he had the chance to really make Lance regret his words. Had he really forgotten? Was it so surprising to him that they’d done well together? Keith couldn’t figure him out. Sometimes, it seemed like the marill wanted him gone and others, he went out of his way to get Keith’s attention like he wanted to be friends. What the heck was he supposed to do with such mixed signals? Keith crossed his arms petulantly and brooded, staring into the fire. They appeared to be close to the next town, but for some reason, Adam and Shiro preferred to camp. 

Keith sulked for days, hardly paying any attention to much about the city. Celadon? Whatever. He’d really thought that Lance could have been his friend and then he had completely brushed off Keith’s olive branch. So distracted by these thoughts was he, that Keith hardly cared cared Giovanni or his minions with red Rs emblazoned on their ridiculous outfits. Every time he was sent out, Keith unleashed more of his anger through his newly acquired head-butt move. He was still fuming the next time he came out of his pokéball, at camp. He’d been ready for another fight, but apparently they’d finished those and had backtracked all the way there? He rolled his eyes. Back in the outskirts of Lavender Town. Why the heck had they all come back there again? For once, Keith was glad for the skull covering his reddened cheeks as he stomped around the fire. He was fully prepared to spend the evening ignoring any attempts at conversation and growling at Lance.

He lost focus on his immense anger, however, by the oppressive silence of his companions. The humans were huddling close together, staring at Keith occasionally, when they thought he didn’t see them. Even the other pokémon seemed tense, none of them chatting in their usual comfortable banter. Lance was the worst. Normally, the marill couldn’t control his fidgeting, constantly needing to move or stretch into bizarre positions. That night, though, he stood stock still, tail drooping sadly. He was the only one _not_ staring at Keith with eyes full of pity. Finally losing his temper with the whole situation, Keith stomped away from them, awkward and unnerved by the silence. What had happened? What had he missed? Some encounter must have freaked everyone out enough to bring them back here. A cold chill ran through Keith’s veins. They weren’t…planning to release him, were they? His shoulders cradled his ears in unease. They couldn’t possibly be heading back to the Tunnel to let him go. Was it because he hadn’t been a good team player? Because he’d disobeyed Shiro once too often?

He sank back against a tree trunk, letting his head thunk against the rough bark. The moon was visible through the tree line and he could see that it was full. He couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. Little sobs escaped him, no matter how much he tried to smother the sounds. Not too long after he’d broken down, a rustle alerted him to another presence. He whipped his bone club out and jumped to his feet, uncaring of the stray tears. He widened his stance to defend himself. 

“Woah! Hey, hey, it’s, uh, it’s just me.”

For a split second, Keith considered taking out his pain and frustration on Lance, but he quickly deflated, slumping against the tree again with a sigh. The bone club slipped from his loosened grip. If anything, Keith’s downcast demeanor seemed to agitate Lance even further. He stepped close and placed a cautious hand on Keith’s shoulder. Keith tensed, but didn’t move to withdraw.

“Hey, man. Listen. I’m sure I’m the last person you want to talk to right now, but no one else is telling you what happened and you deserve to know,” Lance paused meaningfully, but Keith didn’t say a word. He cleared his throat and began again. 

“When Allura defeated Giovanni’s last pokémon back there, in Celadon I mean, the guy dropped some weird mechanism. We didn’t know what it was, but Adam and Shiro sure did. We came back to Lavender Town to go up the Pokémon Tower. I was kind of worried, you know, that they’d try to make you fight, since you don’t really like ghosts…” Lance trailed off awkwardly, bouncing his tail a few times. “But I guess they already knew that. Anyway, when we got to the top, there was a _really_ strong ghost guarding the last room. It was, um, a marowak.”

Keith’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open in surprise.

“What?”

“Yeah. I asked if she knew you, so that we could send you out to talk to her, or I could convince the others not to destroy her, but she wasn’t your mom. She said she was killed by Team Rocket when they stole her child. And you weren’t stolen, you were in the Tunnel, plus she didn’t recognize your name so…”

“No. My mother died in a cave in,” Keith said shortly. “I was with her. She saved me. But whoever Team Rocket is, they’re horrible.”

“I agree. All the more reason for us to be strong. The others have heard of them; apparently the Rockets go around stealing pokémon and killing others. I’m sorry about teasing you before. We _have_ to stick together. Make sure that we can become powerful enough to stop them and keep ourselves safe.”

Keith nodded. Lance may have apologized for the previous offense, but Keith could already tell that he wasn’t the sort of marill who could grow with hatred in his heart. Keith resolved to use his bitter desire for revenge to harden himself and force himself to train as hard as possible. To protect Lance and avenge that cubone and its mother. Lance would be motivated by other, more positive things, though, so Keith also promised to keep his motives private. Lance bounced his tail a few more times and sighed, staring at the ground and stepping back from Keith. He seemed about to head over to a different tree, to keep watch over Keith like he always did. Something was different though. Keith didn’t _want_ him to leave.

“When my mother died, something instinctive told me to stay there. My mom had told me about the ritual of waiting until a parent had decomposed enough to use the bone club to pry it off of their head and scrape the skull clean and then to wear it in their memory. At the time, it seemed like something a proud warrior would do, a point of pride. The whole time, though, I felt sick with grief.”

“Yeah that seems kinda…”

Lance had turned around and come back, seemingly just as eager to continue chatting. Keith glared at him warningly, unwilling to tolerate any degrading talk about his species. Lance backpedaled, clearing his throat again.

“I-I mean, did she tell you why cubone do that? Or marowak do that? I mean they wear skulls too…”

“A cubone evolves into a marowak when it is able to come to terms with its mother’s death. At that time, we awaken our true power, which had been so impaired by grief and resentment, and the skull reforms around our head, fitting properly.”

“So it doesn’t fit now?”

“Not perfectly. I can’t take it off, even if I wanted to.”

“And, ah, was it the skull your mom wore or is actually, you know…” he gestured at his own head.

“The skull she wore. Although some marowak never choose to reproduce, our society dictates that a marowak may have a single child, for this exact eventuality. This way, we pass down the strength of our foremothers.”

Lance nodded, but Keith could see that he didn’t really understand. He could see Lance biting back on whatever he wanted to say, something about it all being very morbid. It was, but Keith didn’t want to think about tradition anymore. Instead he pointed up at the full moon above their heads. 

“This skull and my club are my only real connection to my mother. But, I see her face in the moon. She was so kind to me…the only reason she died was because _I_ wasn’t fast enough or brave enough. She could hear the cave in start and she wanted to get us out, but when the first boulder fell, I was scared. I couldn’t move. She had to come back for me and carry me until I could run. If I hadn’t frozen up like a _coward,_ then she’d probably still be-“

“Keith.”

Keith resolutely continued to stare at the moon as tears streamed down his face.

“She loved you so much that she was willing to give up her life for you. That’s not because you’re slow or a coward. Being scared when you’re a kid is only natural. I know she didn’t blame you. I bet that she loved you right until the end. And, I bet that she still loves you know and is so happy that you wear her skull and honor her by fighting so well.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Because I believe my Papa is the same way. Just like the moon is always looking down on you, even when you can’t see her, I have always seen my Papa in the rain that falls and rejuvenates the plants. To remind me that it’s okay to cry, because it rejuvenates you.”

Lance became very quiet and they both contemplated the moon for a few minutes in a comfortable silence. 

“Thank you,” Keith whispered, wanting to avoid startling the marill.

“For what?”

“Finding me. Telling me what happened. I don’t think any of the others were planning to. Not even Shiro, my supposed partner.”

Lance sighed heavily.

“Humans are hard. They think differently than us and it’s difficult to communicate with them. Shiro probably thought that he was doing the right thing by protecting you. Personally, I think he didn’t give you enough credit. And besides, it’s no fun suffering all alone.”

“It’s no fun suffering at all.”

Lance waved his tail impatiently.

“You know what I mean.”

Keith sniffed and wiped his nose. 

“I, uh, I can leave if you _want_ to be alone.”

“Go over to your tree, you mean?”

“No. Back to the fire. I was only doing that when I didn’t trust you, but I do now. Trust you.”

Keith’s heart swelled in gratitude. His voice was thick with emotion.

“Actually, why don’t you come over here? We can suffer together.”

Lance put his hands on his chubby body and raised his nose into the air.

“I’ll come and stay with you, but we’re not spending the whole night suffering! I need to get my beauty sleep and honestly, you could do with some too!”

“Hey!”

“When was the last time you groomed yourself? Or even let Shiro brush you? Your tail looks awful!”

Keith turned around to check, aggravated.

“It looks fine!”

Lance tsked and took Keith firmly in hand, making him promise that when they got to a town with a spa that Keith would consent to having a professional deal with his appearance because Lance claimed that there was only so much he could do. Keith grumbled, but was happy to let the marill take his mind off of more distressing topics. Eventually, they drifted off to sleep. When the sun rose the next morning, Keith awoke with a start as he rolled over and someone mumbled sleepily for him to cut it out. He squinted open an eye and his heart warmed at the sight of the snoozing pokémon next to him. Keith was partially surprised that the marill hadn’t fled during the night, only to deny their cuddling the next day, but he couldn’t say he wasn’t pleased. He snuggled back against the blue fur and resumed his sleep. 

Over the next few weeks, they were inseparable. Of course, they still fought, butting heads over dumb arguments and sulking away from the others for hours, until someone else lost patience with their antics and forced them to apologize. But, for the most part, they maintained a friendly rivalry, supporting each other and growing as a team. Lance insisted that Keith befriend the other pokémon in their teams and he did his best to overcome his naturally reclusive nature. In fact, Shiro managed to catch a snorlax who had been blocking an important path and Keith preferred the snorlax’s company to most of the other pokémon, besides Lance. When the marill began to grow jealous of how much time Keith spent with the snorlax, (whose name turned out to be Winkle), Hunk reassured him that Winkle was constantly asleep during those supposed hang outs and, instead of being jealous, Lance ought to urge Keith to actually _talk_ to their teams. For some reason, Lance was content to let Keith be in that respect.

It was then, naturally, that Lance evolved into an azumarill and became _completely insufferable._ He preened for days, prancing around to make sure every single living being had seen the full magnitude of his evolution. He teased Keith mercilessly about the fact that the cubone wouldn’t evolve for a considerable amount of time. Keith wasn’t totally helpless though. Lance may have become bigger, stronger, and faster, but the immediate increase of strength and size led to some hilarious missteps along the steep learning curve of evolution. For example: the first time they encountered a river, Lance let out an enthusiastic cry and barreled towards it, jumping in without hesitation. Only to bob back up within a moment, yelling in fear and shaking his whole body. Keith ran over and reeled him in by the tail, heaving the azumarill, now three times Keith’s size, onto the bank. 

“What happened? Are you okay? Is something down there?”

Lance shivered and twisted his head side to side violently, letting his huge ears flap as they sprayed droplets. 

“Inside my head! Water got in! I don’t understand, it’s so loud in the water! Why is it loud? Why does it hurt?”

Keith waved over their bewildered trainers who stared confusedly at the scene. Shiro had the presence of mind to get out his pokédex and examine it for clues as to Lance’s strange behavior. He conferred with Adam for a few minutes, listening to the automated voice listing off physical characteristics of an azumarill. It turned out that azumarill had very sensitive hairs in their long ears. These allowed them superior hearing, but were also quite painful when wet or touched. After showing Lance some pictures of how azumarill commonly rolled up their ears to prevent water damage, and his several failed attempts to replicate that, Keith had enough blackmail material to put a damper on any of Lance’s future teasing. 

Time passed and they became closer. Lance tried to teach Keith how to fish by diving straight into the river and using his buoyant tail to keep him anchored. Both of Keith’s attempts resulted in the skull filling up with water and leaving him utterly disoriented. Eventually, taking pity on the soaking cubone, Shiro’s combusken, Pidge, offered to help fashion a rudimentary fishing rod out of Keith’s bone. They wrapped a tangela vine around the bone and attached some of the combusken’s feathers to the end. Keith pilfered a few pokétreats from Adam’s bag and tied one on the end. He cast the line out and chased Lance away, moving further down river to get away from the loud marill who was _definitely_ scaring the goldeen away. In the end, Keith was plenty proud of the magikarp he caught, refusing to eat any of the remoraid Lance caught, (even if it looked much more appetizing). Pidge helped Keith cook the magikarp until it was soft enough to pry the meager meat from the shell. Although not very tasty, the meal was flavored with a combination of Keith’s success and Lance’s pride in him.

Soon afterwards, Adam and Shiro were arguing about matching their teams against each other for training. Adam accused Shiro of being a poor sport, just because his team had lost the last few rounds. Keith huffed. It had been more than a few battles they’d lost and he didn’t blame Shiro for his anger. Lance took Adam’s side which wasn’t entirely surprising, but it still hurt. When Adam and Shiro noticed that their pokémon were choosing sides in their argument and even Lance and Keith had practically come to blows, they decided to stop. Shiro took a walk, beckoning Keith to follow him. He crouched down after they’d gotten out of earshot of the others.

“Listen, Keith, I don’t want you to feel like you have to take my side when I argue, just because you’re on my team. Please don’t be mad at Lance; it’s really nice to see you both getting along so well now.”

Keith pouted and crossed his arms impatiently. Shiro suddenly stood up with a crooked smile and pulled his fanny pack around, fishing in it for something. He pulled out a spray bottle and Keith cocked his head to the side inquisitively. It looked like some kind of healing potion. But he wasn’t hurt at all. Why did they need that? Before he could indicate his confusion to his human, however, Shiro stood up, backed away, and sprayed Keith with it. Keith cried out in alarm, but the sensation wasn’t painful. Almost…enlightening. As if he was forcibly imbued with a power or knowledge previously unknown to him. His hands, in particular, felt especially strong all of a sudden. Not to mention the fact that one of his previous moves, tail whip, seemed bizarre, like he’d forgotten how to perform the maneuver he’d used only an hour ago in battle against Lance. How could it have become such a far off memory so quickly? And why did everything about his hands seem…electric? He waved his hands, trying to dispel the feeling.

“Let’s try it out! But we’ll keep it a secret, okay Keith? Just between us for now. And then, the next time you fight Lance, we’ll give him and Adam a real shocker.”

Keith grew to relish his thunder punch, an instant knock-out against Lance in their next battle. Adam was incensed that Shiro would stoop to what he called cheating, but Keith was too busy worrying about Lance’s unconscious body, tiny bolts still shivering up and down his blue fur. Adam revived him promptly but, instead of sharing his trainer’s outrage, Lance was delighted with the technique. He swore to keep practicing so that he could defeat the new and improved Keith. Lance still had the type advantage, after all, and he was faster. Keith never told him how nervous he’d been about receiving the TM, but he was proud of it and happy that Lance accepted it as a challenge to work harder. 

As revenge for the thunder punch surprise, Lance plotted with Adam to get him and the others checked in to a spa when they visited a large city. Then, Lance had the upper hand and Keith left unbalanced. After defeating a gym leader, Adam and Shiro felt particularly flush and splurged on the full treatment for both of their teams. Allura was especially grateful for the grooming. Since she’d evolved into a rapidash, her flames had become even more unmanageable and none of them were willing to risk life and limb just to brush her mane. At pokémon spas, however, they were professionals with special equipment to handle all types. Lance kept up the high energy, making fun of Keith at first when they were hosed down and shampooed, but even he got swept away in the luxury of the massages and fur trims. The whole experience was _glorious._ Keith may not have enjoyed it as much as the others, but everyone else felt relaxed and refreshed afterwards. 

In fact, the air of indulgence was so heavy upon the whole party that Adam and Shiro agreed to rent two rooms for the night at the motel. One for some of their pokémon to have a sleepover in, and one for them. They knew how much their poké-companions enjoyed having time to themselves and it was a good way to end the fun day they’d had. Unfortunately, some of the larger pokémon like Hunk and Winkle couldn’t fit properly in the room, but most of the team were fine. Shiro and Adam lectured them sternly on respecting the hotel rules and not trashing the room or making crank calls, making sure to leave enough snacks that the pokémon wouldn’t leave and disturb anyone. They all nodded to show their understanding, promising to only leave to relieve themselves outside or to go to Adam and Shiro’s room in an emergency. Pidge sighed, already resigned to the evening, and wondered why the humans constantly treated them like total idiots. Also, why was she the one in charge? Granted, Allura might have accidentally set the place on fire, but the rapidash was much more suited to leadership than she. 

Contrary to Pidge’s fears, though, the night proceeded like most sleepovers. The pokémon stripped the beds of their blankets and pillows to nest more comfortably on the floor. The closet was raided for the extra pillow and the human robes. Even the slippers were pilfered to round out the nest. Snacks were shared and crumbs were spilled. One of them figured out how to put on the television and many of them became enraptured by the current show depicting a team of two almost identical Mr. Mimes. One of them worked on renovating a house and the other one helped his trainer pick out a second house. Apparently, humans fixed up houses before leaving them for new houses. The pokémon were impressed; it seemed very kind to repair a house for the next people living there. Pidge tried once more to explain the concept of currency and that the people weren’t entirely unselfish since fixed up houses cost more, but the others largely ignored her. Pokemon, on the whole, knew that humans gave each other money for things, but most species engaged in direct trade. The ones who worked alongside humans, either in careers or in battling, expected food and care in return for their service. Everything was less complicated that way and only Pidge seemed to grasp the purpose of currency. 

Part way through her long-winded and boring explanation, full of technical terms like “economy”, whatever the hell that was, Lance and Keith snuck out of the room. Initially, it was a bathroom trip. Pidge’s first order of the night had been that they implement the buddy system for bathroom breaks, just in case something happened. Keith couldn’t exactly imagine what could happen. Adam and Shiro had said bathroom breaks needed to happen outside, but, on their way down the stairs, a nice lady wearing the hotel uniform kindly directed them to the pokéroom. There was one on each floor and she led them back up the stairs and over to it. The woman politely held the door open and then left them to their business. Lance ran over to rub affectionately on her leg in thanks before rushing in after Keith. On their way back to the room, however, they discovered a problem. The door was locked. They tried the handle a few times, but it wouldn’t budge. 

“Why did they lock the door? How is anyone supposed to get back inside?”

Keith frowned. He hadn’t anticipated that getting in would be an issue. What had Shiro and Adam been imagining? That they’d go in and out through the window? So far up from the ground? He raised his bonemerang to whack the door, intending to get the occupants’ attention. Lance grabbed his hand to stop him. They flailed against each other for a second.

“What are you doing? Stop it!”

“What are _you_ doing? We need to get back inside before we get in trouble!”

“Adam said we have to be quiet! We can’t disturb the other guests. We have to knock quietly.”

Keith rolled his eyes and knocked gingerly on the door. Lance listened intently for a few seconds before shifting uncomfortably. 

“Well, maybe Pidge is still talking to them. You know how she goes on. And the tv is kind of loud; I can hear it through the door.”

Keith cocked his head, but the cubone’s hearing was no match for Lance’s. He couldn’t hear much beyond the faint droning of voices that could have been either Pidge or the tv. He believed Lance though and sighed. Squaring his shoulders, he marched over to Shiro and Adam’s door. Lance looked worried, his tail bobbing around in his discomfort. Much as he was loathe to disturb the trainers, he had to admit that this could qualify as an emergency. Finally he nodded. Out of curiosity, and fear of making noise, Lance tried the door handle, expecting it to be locked. Surprisingly, it wasn’t. The door opened inwards and Keith followed Lance inside. They both had guilty expressions and hoped that they wouldn’t get into too much trouble. Instead of a lecture, or any trouble, they were greeted with an unexpected sight. 

Adam lay on the bed and Shiro laid on top of him. They were rubbing against each other and aggressively cuddling. Small smacking noises came from where their mouths kept touching and sucking. It was… _disgusting._ Both Keith and Lance took a step back, equally distressed, although for different reasons. Keith had never seen humans engage in such behaviors and it was honestly bizarre. Were they drooling into each others’ mouths? Eugh. Lance, on the other hand, had seen others perform such rituals. Not quite as much as their trainers were, or maybe the other human pairs Lance had seen were less enthusiastic about it? But, Lance recognized the behavior as human courting. He agreed with Keith that it was gross, no doubt about it, but he had far more pressing matters on his mind. Namely, that Adam was courting his self-proclaimed rival! What did it mean? Sure, Adam and Shiro were friends and traveled together, but they constantly battled, challenging each other to be better. Like him and Keith. Learning about this dimension of their relationship was mind-blowing. How could he reconcile it?

In their combined distress, both pokémon inadvertently began making noises that quickly attracted the humans’ attention. Adam became embarrassed immediately, hiding his face in his hands and turning red. Shiro also turned very red and cleared his throat a couple of times, rolling off the bed to kneel down in front of Lance and Keith. 

“What’s wrong? Is it an emergency?”

Keith glanced at Lance, but the azumarill had a thousand-yard stare. His entire world view had been shaken and he quietly mumbled broken sentences to himself. Keith had stood there, low-key horrified by his trainer’s actions, and totally baffled by Lance’s existential crisis. He’d gotten the gist of some of it. Shiro and Adam were mates. Unexpected, and still gross, but not warranting Lance’s melt down. Keith inhaled sharply. He needed to get them back in their room and talk Lance through whatever was happening. He turned back to Shiro and nodded, then shook his head. He’d seen Lance do it with Adam to indicate that the answer was yes and no. Shiro seemed puzzled.

“Uh, so it’s sort of an emergency?”

Keith nodded affirmatively.

“Is anyone hurt?” No. “Is anyone in immediate danger of being hurt?” No. “Okay, let me put on some pants and you can show me what the problem is.”

Keith led him and Lance back to their door, shaking the handle to show that it was locked. Shiro scratched his head.

“Did you try knocking?” Yes. “But they didn’t answer?” Yes. “If you don’t have a room key, how the fuck did you get into our room?” Shrug. Keith mimed reaching for the handle and it opening up. Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Fine. But next time you need to use the bathroom, take one of these. Pidge has them.”

Shiro showed Keith the card. Keith nodded. Shiro demonstrated how to insert the card and then remove it before the door would open. Keith scurried inside, dragging a silent Lance in behind him. Shiro seemed happy to let them go and quickly made his way back to his boyfriend, determined to pick up where they’d left off. He shut the door and confirmed that it was closed all the way.

“What if we traumatized them? I’ll never be able to show my face to Lance again. Did you see how he froze up like that? He just kept saying ‘maril maril maril’ under his breath like he’d lost his mind,” Adam moaned into the pillow he’d buried his head under. 

Shiro chuckled and rubbed his shoulders, shucking his pants once more.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine. They’re not children, they’re pokémon. They have breeding instincts too. If they still seem confused tomorrow, we can tell them that we’re dating. Or google how to tell your pokémon you have sex.”

“We are _not_ googling that, Jesus Christ, Shiro. Social Services would come take them away. What if they think we’re trying to have sex with them?”

“That seems…physically unlikely. I’m sure there are people who do that, in some rural places, maybe.”

“You aren’t doing much for the mood, babe.”

“Uh, yeah. Well. Maybe we can watch some tv for now? Try again later?”

“Sounds good.”

Meanwhile, in the other room, Keith had taken Lance into a corner. Only Pidge noticed their reentrance and had rolled her eyes, sweeping her hand over the key cards on the table by the door that she had “never expected them to be so dumb as to leave behind”. Keith stuck his tongue out at her and ushered Lance away from the others. 

“Lance? Can you tell me what’s going on? I mean, that was w-weird, yeah, but not that weird.”

“Keith. They’re rivals and also mates! How can they do that? If you want to beat someone, be better than them, how can you love them? I don’t…it’s different for humans, you know? Mating for a lot of pokémon is just for fun or eggs. But for humans, they keep one mate for a long time. Maybe their whole _lives._ It’s like having a best friend. You can’t be rivals with your best friend!”

“I…I thought we were best friends.”

Keith murmured, turning away. He felt his throat tightening and tears sprang to the corners of his eyes. What was Lance saying? He always went on and on about him and Keith being rivals, so did that mean they weren’t best friends? Lance gave him this shell-shocked look. Like he’d never considered their rivalry/friendship in this equation.

“No, of course we are! We _are_ best friends and rivals! Keith, listen. We’re pokémon. Humans do their best, and they’re very smart for their species, but we both know they’re not exactly capable of sophisticated, multi-faceted relationships the way we are.”

Keith sniffled.

“Multi-faceted? You’ve been spending too much time with Pidge.”

“Yeah, probably. But you see what I mean right? Humans are simple. They want a different person for different things. Like I said, they’re plenty intelligent, just not like us. I don’t want Shiro and Adam to get confused about who they are to each other. They can’t make eggs and that’s _definitely_ not how you make eggs anyway, but what if they think they will? What if they fight and separate? We won’t be together anymore.”

Recovering himself slightly, Keith couldn’t help but snort. It sounded more like Lance was the one who was confused, not Shiro or Adam. He admitted that the fear of separation was a real one, but he couldn’t bring himself to believe it would ever happen.

“We’ll figure it out. But, I don’t think they’ll fight.”

“But they’re rivals!”

Keith sighed heavily. Unable to properly explain his hunch that Shiro and Adam were a lot clearer about their rivalry than he and Lance, Keith decided to take pity on the azumarill and scrambled for a justification.

“Um, well, they were wiggling around a lot. It looked rough and sort of painful. So, maybe their being mates isn’t like other humans being mates. They are friendly rivals, so they won’t fight seriously or really hurt each other, but it looked like they were scrapping. It’s a battle, right? But humans don’t battle so they don’t know how to and are clumsy. A friendly battle since I saw some bottles on the nightstand that are probably human potions so no one faints. Using tongues. Like a lickitung!”

Lance still seemed doubtful, but he was considering Keith’s argument. Keith mentally patted himself on the back for remembering lickitung. 

“So they’re still trying to be better than each other, but they’re doing it in a courting way?”

“Yeah.”

“I think they need some practice. I’ve seen other human mates and they’re not nearly so gross. Maybe we should try to help Shiro and Adam? The way they help us learn new moves.”

“Uh…”

Lance triumphantly put his hands on his hips and grinned at Keith, his tail bouncing excitedly.

“We have to learn the proper way to lovingly battle!”

Before Keith could respond to that idiocy, Lance body slammed him into the side of the nest. Keith gasped for breath as the wind was knocked out of him. Lance was a lot larger now, as an azumarill, and Keith squirmed painfully underneath the heavy blue blubber. 

“No! This is stupid!”

“Oh yeah, I forgot humans can’t do real moves. Sorry.”

Lance rolled off of him and Keith inhaled the air greedily. He didn’t have time to recover as Lance lifted Keith on top of him and wrapped his tail around Keith’s body. The bonemerang was lost in the blankets and Keith struggled to escape.

“Hey! You’re wriggling too much! Come on! Let’s snuggle.”

“I don’t want to!”

“Keith!”

Lance nuzzled him, ignoring the sharp edges of Keith’s skull and his sharp words. He was determined to figure this out. He couldn’t deny how happy snuggling Keith made him, rival, best friend, or whatever they were. When Keith finally settled down with low grumbles of increasingly sleepy and nonsensical threats, Lance relaxed happily. He let his own eyes close, listening to the cubone’s heartbeat and thinking that it sounded much nicer than anything he’d heard before. 


End file.
